


The Gears of Fate

by Silver33650



Series: Tarnished Ghosts and Polished Shadows [1]
Category: Fortnite (Video Game)
Genre: Coming of Age, Gen, minor mention of alcohol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:15:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25792726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silver33650/pseuds/Silver33650
Summary: A tale of family bonds, growing up with gifts, and spy organizations.
Series: Tarnished Ghosts and Polished Shadows [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1923190
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	The Gears of Fate

When Jules was three, she played her first prank on her brother.

She wound a wire around an empty ribbon wheel, threaded it past the hinges, and tied it to an empty can filled with water, standing on her chair on her bed to reach up above the door. When her brother came to see what she was doing that afternoon, he was splashed with water.

He was not amused, but she fell over in her fits of laughter. He still read her a bedtime story and promised her that she would have ice cream on her birthday.

This was when only the tips of his fingers were gold, and his eyes were still green like hers.

* * *

When Jules was five, she got lost at the park for the first time.

It was a big park, a new one, not the one they usually visited. She'd been playing with the other kids her age, but grew bored waiting in line for the slide, and had resorted to the swings, then the jungle gym, then the sandbox. She noticed how low the sun had gotten in the sky and realized she hadn't seen her brother in hours.

The sandbox, luckily, was a treasure trove of things that had been lost by other children. An antenna, some wires, two halves from separate flip phones. A button, a speaker cover. A mint tin. She took them apart and rearranged them, and found a battery that still had some juice. A light blinked on her machine.

She dialed her brother's number and waited for him to answer. He didn't the first time, or the second, but on the third he did, and she asked him to come get her. He told her to stay put.

A few minutes later, she saw him approach, taking long strides across the grass. He had several years on her but was desperate to look older, hoping that people would take him seriously. She didn't really understand, but she knew that she adored him, and that he was the reason they weren't on the street or at the orphanage anymore. No matter how busy he was, he always looked out for her.

He picked her up and took her home. They had ice cream for dessert, for the first time in months.

* * *

When Jules was seven, she got her first pet.

She'd built him using the wrenches she'd gotten for her birthday, from old springs and cracked plates and the computers that her brother discarded when the latest model came out. The machine looked like a dog, so she named him Spot, and they chased each other around the apartment and down the stairs and out into the parking lot. Her brother saw them when he came home, and he patted the machine's head with a curious look on his face. The gold hadn't yet passed his knuckles, so there was no risk of him accidentally turning it to gold.

That evening, he told her that he would be starting university soon, and that he would be around even less. She didn't mind, as long as he would let her keep the dog. He smiled but it didn't reach his eyes when he told her she could. He asked her if she could make more, and that she wouldn't have to go to school anymore if she did. She readily agreed, and only then did his whole face light up.

They had ice cream for dessert, and would have it every time she finished another machine.

* * *

When Jules was nine, she rode on a plane for the first time.

They went to a tall building filled with lots of men with suits and phones and stern faces. So her brother fit right in, wearing his waistcoat and slacks and shined wingtips, but she felt out of place in her favorite party dress, which now seemed too colorful for this dreary building. But her brother had said she should wear her nicest outfit, and this was it.

The men they came to see were old, wrinkled and balding, but her brother treated them like kings when he showed off her work. They didn't seem impressed with her clockwork bird, chirping and gliding and whistling, until her brother touched it with intention, the gold coating his fingers flowing out over the bird. It slid over the bird's contours, hiding its cracks with its gilding. The men leaned forward, their eyes wide. This had their interest.

Her brother shook the men's hands one by one, then led her back to the elevator and out of the building. She looked back as they left the lobby, at the strange symbol behind the desk. The circle with the lightning and triangle in a rounded pentagon.

She asked him about it when they got ice cream, but he wouldn't tell her much. Only that they were good people, and that they were going to help them a lot, all while a manic gleam lit his eyes. Almost as if they were tinted gold.

* * *

When Jules was eleven, she ran away from home for the first time.

She packed up all her machines she could carry and left a note for her brother that said she didn't want to build anything else for him. He'd been so pushy, pointing his golden fingers at her machines like he knew better, like he knew everything. Well, he didn't. He barely knew how to replace his watch battery.

She got on her bike and rode out of their neighborhood, out of the town, into the empty plains. She stopped at a diner and attracted plenty of stares when she sat down at the bar. But she had enough money to buy one of everything, so they stopped asking questions.

Except for one curious patron wearing all black. Black suit, black shirt, black gloves. Black mask covering his face. He sat next to her and asked her questions, questions that made her feel uneasy, but the man just laughed and gave her his card. But instead of a name, it had only a symbol on it- a gas mask surrounded by lightning and arrows, enclosed in a hexagon. She looked back up at him, but he was gone. She wondered how he had lost his middle fingers.

She was eating ice cream when her brother found her and drove her back home.

* * *

When Jules was thirteen, she got her first scholarship.

Her brother was beaming when he read the letter. An engineering school, one of the best in the nation. From there, she could go to any university she wanted. even abroad. They had the money now; they had ice cream whenever they pleased. Her brother's clothes had grown finer and were replaced more often; the lines in his palms had been filled in with gold. But she preferred to dress simply, in whatever was easiest to work in. She left the presentation of her work to him.

Her brother had dreams, now. Goals that his company wanted to accomplish. He told her to learn all she could, and that a position with his company was waiting as soon as she was old enough. He promised they would do great things together. She believed him.

She turned fourteen, and fifteen, and sixteen. She went to university far away but talked with her brother every day.

She turned seventeen, and eighteen, and nineteen, and twenty. She graduated with honors and took pictures with her brother in front of the university seal. They returned home, and she started her new job where he worked, on the same floor. She could see him from her desk, shut in his office and pacing while on his phone. He seemed stressed, but he was always happy when he saw her. He asked her to design robots, and vehicles, and teleporters. The company had an unlimited budget, thanks to her brother. She could do as she pleased.

And though her designs were crude at first, they were very effective. Even the failures were simply turned to gold and sold. Though her brother did keep a few for himself, filling his office with gilded statues.

Then one day, he got a bigger office, on another floor, and Jules saw him less and less.

She made some friends at the company. A girl who loved games and drew comics. They shared work stories. Jules told Lynx about the robot they were working on, and Lynx told Jules about her livestream and artwork. They went to lunch together, and dinner, and then one day, her brother came too. They had ice cream together by the river, and talked and laughed together into the sunset.

They hung out more together after that. Worked late, went on walks, held movie nights. They even went to a tattoo parlor together, each decorating themselves with what they loved most. For Jules, it was gears, all working together in harmony. this surprised nobody. Lynx's designs were similarly expected. But Jules couldn't make sense of her own brother's: a shark, a skull, a spade, a star. a storm. All inked just out out reach where the gold reached toward his wrists.

"I'll tell you when you're older," he said, his eyes a dull gold, and they went out for ice cream later. They would not do so again for a long while.

* * *

When Jules turned twenty-one, her coworkers took her out to celebrate.

There was a huge commotion at the bar, where everyone chipped in to buy her a drink. Then more drinks. Then shots. She hardly drank any of them, and they were passed around with abandon while she nursed her first glass. As the birthday girl, everyone wanted to talk to her, whether they worked with her or not. A man who droned about fishing. A girl with pink hair. And a woman who dressed stylishly, smiling behind her white-rimmed sunglasses, who slid a card with a symbol on it into her hand. It was the same one as ten years ago. Jules slid it into her wallet before anyone saw her with it.

Her brother was late to the party, but he bought her ice cream.

* * *

When Jules turned twenty-two, she learned about the storm.

She'd known her brother had been keeping secrets from her. The bizarre requests, the strange equations, the unnatural calculations. He had asked her to design outlandish things. Machines that could withstand strong winds, crushing amounts of mass, violent energy fluctuations. He would never tell her why. Then she threatened to quit, and he finally told her. About the true mission of Ghost, and what it could mean for the world.

Jules was placated, for a time. She kept working on her machines, creating designs that were more and more ambitious. Then she spotted Lynx in her brother's office one day, and never saw her again.

Jules demanded to know where she went, but her brother's answers were vague. He waved off her questions with his golden hands. Communication difficulties. Transmissions being lost in a loop. Jules felt lost, staring at the blinking light of her brother's earpiece. He said the best way she could help was to keep working on her projects. On a device that could resist the storm.

Jules tried. She drew blueprints, played with equations, experimented with alloys. Her brother was silent at every progress report, keeping a hard scowl on his face. Nothing seemed able to withstand the calculations required. And all the while, as more people went missing from Ghost, the card burned in her pocket. The one with the symbol of a gas mask enclosed in a hexagon.

* * *

When Jules turned twenty-three, she submitted the design for the device.

It was small, almost like a suit that could be worn, but the intent was to fill it with storm energy. With enough of them, the storm would be funneled away and used as an energy source. In theory, at least.

Her brother was pleased. He said that they were in a better position than ever to use it. A demonstration was scheduled, and a prototype was built. Things didn't go exactly as planned, and perhaps her brother shouldn't have been standing so close to it, but the project was approved.

The company had a party, but Jules found it hard to celebrate. She thought of the friends she'd lost to the loop. Of the way her brother's eyes had gleamed, pure gold now, when he'd watched the suit power up, seconds before a stray bolt of energy hit his face and shattered his glasses. The way the light glinted off the gold slithering up his forearms as he raised his glass for a toast, his face still bandaged. Of the strangers at the party, the ones she'd seen him interview. A bulky man with his arms always crossed. A woman focused on a handheld game. A girl playing a board game with an anthropomorphic cat whom Jules had recognized immediately.

Something was up.

She left the party without anyone noticing. She walked around the city, with the card in her pocket. She pulled it out and stared at the symbol. Then she turned it over and called the number on the back.

* * *

He tried to bring her back. He sent letters, desperate at first. A glossy poster they would be using for recruitment, with his grinning face on it. She threw it away.

Then the letters grew angry. Commanding. But she didn't answer to him anymore. She was working on better things now, for a better purpose.

She did send him a photo of herself, though. One last act of defiance, wearing her new shirt with the Shadow emblem on it. He stopped responding after that.

It didn't surprise her when he began losing his agents. It didn't surprise her when he started trying to build what she'd invented, but on a larger scale. She knew how it would end. She'd finished the calculations. It wouldn't work.

It amused her boss. "The island will need leadership," he said. "It will need a strong hand."

After his failure, her brother tried to come to her side. He knew he wouldn't be welcome back at Ghost. Shadow indulged him for a time. Then the flood wall broke, and she herself stepped in.

He was so happy to see her. So proud, so relieved. He was all gold now, dressed in black, but his earpiece was still white and blinking in his ear. "I can help you now," he told her, in the warped language of the loop, brandishing his golden gun. "We can make things right. Together. Again."

She didn't answer. The henchmen threw him out into the lake.

She looked at the ruined Agency, at the fires fading around the rubble. They had a lot to do. But the Authority would be better. A fortress that would stand tall and strong against the coming flood, that would bring order to the island when all seemed lost.


End file.
